There is a perception that any combination of options other than the current plan can be strung together to create an approvable plan. That is not the case. Any plan would have to go through the same process we just went through, and there is no guarantee that it would ever be approved (as in the Buck Mountain example). Also, it is unlikely that another plan would emerge that would obtain the community support that the current plan has. 

Two weeks ago Scotland’s top political leader, Alex Salmond, told an audience at the University of Virginia that Scotland deserves to be independent from Great Britain. He cited Thomas Jefferson’s principle of self-government as the basis of his claim that Scotland should “become its own country”

For as long as I can remember, my now 17-year-old son has aspired to a career in politics. I have fretted often about his career choice, having worked in politics on Capitol Hill back in the ’80s, before the tone there turned irrevocably hostile.

Any candidate, Democratic or Republican, who wins the presidential elections will face a great challenge of understanding Iran.

He’s not the first in this campaign to want a fresh start. When she launched her presidential bid in January 2007, Hillary Clinton called herself “the most famous person you really don’t know.” She wasn’t hard as nails. To the contrary, she’s tough enough – and warm and caring besides. She’s still fighting the image battle.

I for one am most grateful that one particular candidate no longer holds the prospect of breaking bread at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next four to eight years: Dennis Kucinich. And it’s nothing personal against him. Really it’s not.

It seems that for this generation of kids, the child-rearing arms race that started some two decades ago is reaching its crescendo, and maybe, just maybe, these kids are getting wise and just saying no: a sort of declaration of detente in a war launched by my generation of type-A overachievers upon the unsuspecting generations to come.

I suspect that there are plenty of you out there who, like me, have already fallen off the New Year’s diet bandwagon, so I am dedicating this column to my fellow comrades-in-arms (make that arms full of sweets and bread products!).

I have long been outspoken about the politics of kids’ sports, and frequently downright disgusted at the backhanded lessons our children continually learn from athletics. Here is one of my favorite sporting lessons: “Sports are more important than anything in your life, including family vacations or holidays.” Then there’s: “Win at all costs.”

Soon we will open our home to two French foreign exchange students. This is an undertaking that we did not decide upon lightly.